Many thanks to all of you for helping to make the first year of the Luminaris blog so rewarding. It's been a great experience so far. It’s interesting at the end of a substantial period of time to see what has resonated with people on the blog. Sure, I post the “Top 5 Posts of the Week” in each of the weekly Luminaris email newsletters (click here to sign up), but this is just a quick snapshot. A closer look at the analytics since the site launched in February provides a compelling picture of what folks are interested in.

Insights from the listI found it interesting that while it was more recently posted, the article on taking risks in teaching was the most viewed post over the course of the year. This is really encouraging to me. It tells me that faculty are eager to try new approaches, tools and resources in their teaching. In many circles, there is an implicit assumption that college and university professors are either 1) mired in a lecture-only approach to teaching; 2) not open to new ideas or approaches for teaching; or 3) focused entirely on their course content with little thought given to their students’ learning.

Interestingly, many of these posts are focused on students’ needs and preferences. The post on connecting with students made the rounds on Twitter to a greater extent than other posts on the site. Two on the list are related to Universal Design for Learning – a framework that helps faculty to plan for the needs of all learners in the classroom. Of all of the posts in the series of learning activities in higher education, the most viewed post is focused upon perhaps the most student-centered approach – problem based learning. The post on multiliteracies encourages faculty to think beyond the learning goals specific to the course content to consider additional skills that might benefit students beyond college (see also 21st century learning design).

Looking ahead to 2016As I look forward to 2016, I hope to branch out to post content on Luminaris beyond the blog posts. I plan to launch an eBook on teaching strategies in the first quarter of the year. The book will pull together and expand upon the posts on instructional planning and the learning activity types in one place to make these resources more easily accessible. I also hope to create more video content as well. Ideally, I’d like to launch a video-based course on personalized learning in the second half of the year.

Finally, I was excited to see that two of the top ten posts are guest posts. I value providing a platform for colleagues to share their work and ideas related to teaching and learning in higher education. I hope that 2016 will see increased numbers of guest and collaborative posts on the site. If you have an idea for a guest post, please connect with me via the contact form.